Precedents to Think About Social Work in Chile in the Current Uncertain Political Scenario: Reflections From Critical Feminisms

In a context marked by machismo, neoliberalism, and colonialism as characteristic of Latin and particularly Chilean culture, in this brief we consider the challenges for social work from a critical feminist perspective, in the context of the current political momentum in Chile. These challenges may be summarized as the lack of a human rights perspective, and a need to materialize it in regulatory guidelines that orient public policy. The human rights perspective in Social Work “advocates for holding the nation-state accountable and responsible for delivering the same justice and equality to all persons, utilizing treaties as leverage for social change” (Werkmeister & Garran, 2015, p. 901). It is also an essential principle, according to the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW, 2014). Thus, challenges faced because of a potential new national constitution in Chile ¹ are a part of the meaning and praxis of social work.

The lack of a human rights perspective impacts social work by hindering work with migrants, sexual and gender diversity, people with disabilities and neurodivergent, workers, indigenous people, children, and youth, among others, who were protagonists in the new constitution proposal process. The lack of human rights also reduces the possibility of participation and perpetuates authoritarianism and a market-centered approach to addressing social issues such as housing, education, and health.

Chile is facing an uncertain political context, marked by a constituent process that has not been linear. The social uprising of October 2019, led predominantly by social and feminist movements, set up the first plebiscite for constitutional change. Thus, in 2020, with 78% of the votes, citizens approved the creation of a new constitution. This was made by a parity constitutional convention—composed equally of men and women—who were democratically elected. The main objective was to replace the 1980 constitution, enacted during the military dictatorship led by Pinochet, through a nondemocratic process. The 1980 constitution established a subsidiary state, with the consequent privatization and installation of a neoliberal and highly conservative regime. However, almost three years after the 2019 protests, 61% of voters rejected the first constitution proposal, restricting important social and feminist transformations and reaffirming political uncertainty.

Given that social and feminist movements were the prime movers of this political change process that started on the streets and became a constitutional proposal, we focus on one key aspect of this past revolution: Gender inequity. It is one of the greatest demands at a political, economic, and occupational level, and involves most of the issues addressed in the constitutional proposal (e.g. mental health, care policies, children and family measures, gender violence, sex education), and interrelates directly with our job as social workers.

Considering the challenges that this context poses for social work, we ask ourselves: What are the implications and possibilities of positioning feminism in social work, in the face of this uncertainty? How should we critically analyze social services and academia, traditional areas of social work development, to contribute to social transformation in Chile? What are the challenges and lessons that the Chilean context can offer to international social work practice? To answer these questions, we present a brief historical review of social work in Chile. Then, we discuss male privilege in social services and academies to reflect on critical feminism and social work in the current political stage, which we recognize as a scenario of uncertainty that threatens to maintain indifference and inaction in the face of inequalities and structural violence.

Social Work in Chile

The first School of Social Work was established in Santiago in 1925, called the School of Social Service for Public Charity. In this first stage, the official narrative defined social intervention as assistive, paternalistic, and based on casework. The school was reserved exclusively for women, who obtained the title of Visitors after three years of study, and their main tasks were related to home visits in a medical and judicial framework (Castañeda & Salamé, 2015). Then, from 1960 to 1973, a new phase took place: the Social Assistant. According to the effervescent political times, with the agrarian and university reforms, Social Work took a critical view regarding the charitable spirit of the past Visitors, beginning to work in the countryside and unions, with a more politically engaged perspective.

In parallel, in Latin America, the reconceptualization period of Social Work began, marked by the idea of Social Work transformation, in social work, but also tied to the idea of structural change and societal reform. For Social Work this meant—as its name states—a profound questioning regarding the main concepts of the profession such as inequality, social intervention, justice, and social transformation. It also involved practice and action, marked by the need for an explicit ethical and political commitment, deepening the critical perspective of our profession, and advocating as human rights defenders. The contributions from Marxism, liberation theology, and the critical and pedagogical thought of Paulo Freire were keys to this process (Alayón-Fernández & Molina-Molina, 2019).

However, this political process was interrupted in 1973 by the military dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet, which aimed to “fight for the liberation of the Homeland and prevent our country from continuing under the Marxist yoke; and the restoration of order and institutionalism” (Memoria Chilena, 2022). Thus, the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende was overthrown. This changed the history of Chile and brought human rights violations and curfew for 17 years, imposing the privatization of state companies, and educational and health institutions, and establishing a neoliberal model that persists until today in our country. This transformed Social Work (Aguayo et al., 2018; Jimenez, 1982) and social services; schools were shut down, and Social Work faculty, students, professionals, and leaders were persecuted and disappeared (Iturrieta, 2018). Also, in the year 1981, Social Work lost its university exclusivity regarding education, meaning that a bachelor's degree would no longer be necessary to become a social worker, opening the field to a variety of educational institutions, particularly technical institutes and private universities (Aspeé, 2016; Iturrieta, 2018; Vivero, 2017). These violent measures were meant to depoliticize Social Work, and mirrored the strategies taking place throughout Chile. This historical summary explains the transformation of the social worker role, from politically active and engaged in fieldwork and community social work during the period of transformation, to a depoliticized administrator after the military dictatorship was installed.

During this time, the organizations that fought against violations of human rights perpetrated by dictatorship actively integrated social workers. Some tasks were assisting, registering, and documenting the testimonies of disappearances and detentions, and also acting to support the dignity of those persons and their families (Rubilar-Donoso, 2018, p. 127). Social movements of resistance to the dictatorship also incorporated social workers into their ranks. Movements such as the Movement for the Emancipation of Chilean Women, the Movement for Women Settlers, and the Movement for Women for Life confronted human rights violations, repression, and the economic crisis, defying fear and opening spaces for encounter and solidarity (Jeria, 2009). Although Women for Life did not define itself as a feminist movement, its principles fostered feminist ideas and demands, such as the installation of March 8 as the day of the feminist struggle and the student meetings of resistance to the dictatorship, spaces for reflection on the inequalities.

In 1990—with the return to democracy—a new phase, the Social Worker stage commenced, with new guidelines regarding social policies oriented to overcome poverty and economic development with social justice (Castañeda, 2001). Social Work regained its professional status in 2005 and returned to being a university career, although it now coexisted with multiple technical and private educational alternatives. The Social Work field was characterized by local development and the outsourcing of state services through agreements with civil society and private institutions added to the call for tenders and competitive grants, leading to the need for education in management and social projects. At present, this reality of Social Work has deepened. The combination of outsourced services and multiple educational options has precarized the field, added to the profound dictatorship damage that led to a neoliberal and patriarchal Chilean society, and resulted in social workers taking the role of Administrators (Höjer & Forkby, 2011), and depoliticized from its more activist profile.

This historical journey is now in a new phase, based on the recent milestones of social movements, and their implications for Social Work practice: first, the Feminist May, which erupted in 2018 for the construction of a non-sexist education and a feminist Chile (Ponce Lara, 2020). This challenged Social Work practice to denounce women's inequality in education and society in general and to make visible and fight against gender gaps in public policy. Second, the Social Outbreak, from October 2019 until March 2020 (because of COVID-19), stopped our entire country through protests and massive mobilizations. It led Social Work to renew its political commitment and remain active in communities, beyond the formal stoppage of academic activities, and social services. Third, the COVID-19 pandemic, brought deep health and economic changes to Chile and the entire world. This raised challenges regarding online practice for the provision of social services and training of Social Work students. It also made visible the way that social inequalities impact the most vulnerable groups and demanded targeted state responses to face emergencies. This includes particularly women, as we discuss below. Finally, the constituent process that came as a result of the Social Outbreak raised our hope for structural transformations based on human rights, and finally uselessly deluded us about this change, long sought by the Chilean people. For these reasons, the question about our potential as feminist social workers becomes urgent. Below, we will analyze this call in two specific fields of social work that are undoubtedly key to potential transformations in the political context and demands for greater social justice.

Male Privilege in Social Services

Male employment privilege, seen in the wage gap, leadership, and working conditions in the overall economy, is also observed in social services (Howe, 1985; Schiele, 1992; Simmons et al., 2022). In this sector, men also occupy leadership positions and use direct casework to advance in a management career (Dominelli & Campling, 2002). In the Chilean case, this inequality increases due to Chile having one of the lowest female labor participation rates in the OECD, equivalent to 52.5% (PwC, 2022). Despite showing a post-pandemic rise, men receive more income than women in all sectors of the economy (INE, 2015). A study on diversity in social services developed by one of the authors, with a sample of 500 people composed mostly of women (77%), confirmed that while women are mostly concentrated in frontline roles, men are more likely to hold managerial positions. While male privilege deepens in traditional feminized care occupations—such as nursing or education—in Social Work this has a double stigma. Social Work must respond to constant sexism in job opportunities, roles, and salaries, and at the same time must deal with the (lower) status of the discipline. In this sense, social work is seen as a “dirty job for women,” because it serves stigmatized populations (Kreiner et al., 2006) and has a minor value in the social sciences (Aquín, 2003). So, we must constantly defend our value as women and social workers (Cree et al., 2020).

The gender gap must be carefully analyzed, so as not to hastily reduce it to a “woman's problem,” as has been represented through the figures of the sticky floor, the glass ceiling, or even the imposter syndrome. Far from it, we postulate that it is a problem associated with male privilege, in which people—regardless of their gender—act in the context of a patriarchal society, implicitly recognizing that men possess qualities that make them better for leadership. To address this challenge from a feminist perspective, we must first recognize that it is not automatically solved by quotas for women in managerial positions. The effort should not be made without the men of these services questioning their privilege, or without institutions. Because it is the patriarchal culture that underpins it, gender equity can only be achieved through rigorous and sustained efforts that transform ways of thinking and doing about work, care, the economy, and the market.

For Social Work, its social justice and solidarity principles align with the demand for transformation. At the same time, from an intersectional perspective, this is not only a gender problem but a problem of class position and power that rests on patriarchy and the colonialities of power, knowledge, and being of the Global North. In Chile, opportunities for transformation arise due to social movements, so it is necessary to sustain the political work of feminisms that has installed gender equity as a constitutive element of transformations and not as another (separate) demand. Although the September 2022 rejection of the proposal for a new constitution is a turning point, some reforms must continue to be pushed, such as the reform of the care system, as it seeks the valuation and formalization of the care work carried out mainly by women in their homes and social services. The transformation must come from a feminist perspective because we also risk being co-opted by institutions and reproducing the same logic. Therefore, transforming social services becomes a union matter and an ethical issue to offer a more dignified service to those in need.

Male Privilege in Academia

COVID-19 strongly highlighted the issue of care, the overload of families, and the excessive responsibility of women, because of the persistence of unequal patterns in the distribution of domestic tasks. ECLAC ² (2021) already warned about a decade-long setback generated by the pandemic in terms of labor participation in Chile, with a significant exodus of women from the workforce to meet care demands. In addition, women employed in care, health, and education were part of the first line of response to COVID-19, and that pressure had a strong effect on their workloads and working conditions (ECLAC, 2021). The closure of educational centers affected workers due to adaptation to distance learning (ECLAC, 2021). Even field practice sites for Social Work students continued to function virtually, with all the demands that this implies in terms of reconciling domestic, care, and academic time. Thus, along with the gender gap, the health emergency made visible the insufficiency in the social organization of care and the way society—family, community, market, and State—is organized to respond to the care needs of the elderly, children, and those who require permanent care (Guizardi et al., 2022).

After COVID-19, Castañeda and Rodrigues (2021) analyzed the contradictions between motherhood and scientific work. The results revealed the double or triple days of women researchers. The picture for female academics in Chile is also bleak: greater participation of men than women in research (33%), also concentrated in the lower levels of the scientific ladder with only 22% of women tenured professors, and few publications by women, placing Chile as one of the countries with the lowest participation of women among published in WoS until 2014.

The decline in academic productivity as a result of care is a fact. Indeed, in Brazil, studies show that the lowest percentages of submissions of articles are concentrated in women with children under seven years of age (Rodrigues & Castañeda, 2021). Likewise, teaching has also involved dealing with the pandemic's strong impact on students’ mental health. Due to these new demands, the university structure has activated some alert services for students, however, they fail to address the magnitude and severity of the problem, which has increased demands on teachers. In a highly feminized career such as Social Work, as feminist professors, we have a series of questions: to what extent does this transfer the idea of care into teaching? Doesn’t it perhaps represent a burden on the emotional work of women dedicated to teaching? How will we respond to the new challenges that this situation represents? This, without forgetting the fundamental concern for the learning task, the well-being of the group of students, and the training of social workers with a social, feminist, and ethical conscience. As Rodrigues and Castañeda (2021) argue, it is important that our experience as women in science transcends private life since the struggle is about questioning and transforming the dynamics within households, but also highly masculinized institutions and conciliation between scientific production and care, to advance towards the social organization of care seriously. As the Chilean feminist academic, Julieta Kirkwood would say, amid dictatorship, Democracy in the country, at home, and in bed.

How can we do this? In our case, we believe that installing a collaborative logic against the competition in a highly masculinized scenario has allowed us to resist. Thus, collective reflection has been our trench, as Torralbo and Guizardi (2021) called those community spaces of mutual care, reciprocity, and exchange of women. Perhaps the first step is to recognize that gender gaps affect us all, regardless of socioeconomic or educational level or the country we live or the field in which we work. As social workers, our identities are in tension as we reflect on these phenomenon and the social policies that seek to confront them. However, we are also part of the group that is mainly affected. It is this tension that opened the way to spaces for reflection, collaboration, and action that contributes to regaining strength in the current political scenario, to push feminist transformations that we believe will continue their course.

Conclusion

The Chilean experience has been marked by the 1973 dictatorship, women's participation in the resistance and struggle for democracy, and a strong outsourcing of social services and social work fields. These social, political and economic experiences have allowed male privilege in academy, social services and surely many other areas of practice.

So, it is necessary to position ourselves in feminism in Social Work, to make visible all the tensions in all areas of development of social work, where the academic world and social services are just two examples. Likewise, it is necessary to maintain reflection, but also action. We are facing an ethical and political turning point that stresses Social Work in Chile and feminist movements globally. The coexistence of social movements and progressive logic with a deeply ingrained neoliberal development model, and the rise of the extreme right means that women’s rights are constantly questioned. Therefore, the fight for them is permanent and in all trenches. As seen in the Chilean case, times of transformation require our attention and consistency, as Simone de Beauvoir warned in 1949: “Never forget that a political, economic or religious crisis is enough for women’s rights to be questioned. These rights are never acquired. You will have to remain alert throughout your life.” Research, Social Work training, social services, and social movements are conditioned by status and privilege, which in the case of Social Work intersects profession, gender, and caregiving roles. We must be critical of male privilege and our privileges as (primarily) cis, hetero, Latina, working, and professional women. This recognition makes us exercise sisterhood, activism, anti-oppression, and constantly question our role in Social Work education. We are a country where politics continues to be despised, feared, and hidden, despite the constitutional process. Today, the feminist slogan that personal is political, that institutions, education, and Social Work are political too, is becoming more and more evident. To this point, we believe that feminist Social Work is an ethical demand for the profession, as it reflects the historical commitment that our practice has to solidarity, dignity, and social justice. We also believe that we must work for the consolidation of an intersectional and global feminist Social Work movement, as a political horizon.

In this sense, we believe that the door opened by the feminist, student, and social movements of our country can still mobilize changes. In an uncertain and contradictory political scenario, critical feminism in SW research, practice, and training can challenge fear and once again open spaces for encounters and sisterhood, like those who resisted and mobilized the end of dictatorship.